What could it be?

Our neighbor yelled across the canal to Hubby that he heard something scratching in his ceiling last night.
These little homes are built so minimalist that we don’t have attics, crawls or basements in them.
So to have the possibility of something making noise above your head during your precious sleep time is just plain weird or more than likely rodent induced.

Now you have unacceptable ones like rats and mice, and even a squirrel by some may be considered not that cute or loveable.
Personally at times I have thought each of those to be adorable, and or icky-poo too.

The mystery may never be solved.
We were fortunate when we heard that familiar scratching under my bathtub in my bathroom. Yes, we had all the tell-tale signs from holes in a dog food bag to chewing through a plastic container where the dog food had been put after, and then finally we fixed the problem by putting the dog food in our car in the garage with the windows rolled up!

Yep, we have experience with this problem, but at first we thought it could be our ghost coming back. We may of have had a haunting way back when our home had to be gutted after Hurricane Charley, and then oddities ensued.
I did consult a professional in the field of ghost busting, a local husband and wife team, and their report from our photo was inconclusive but interesting just the same, and left the door open for the possibility.

But in reality ours too was a rodent, a small rat or large mouse, either way, he or she was brazen, since we did have a cat! You would logically think he/she would have gone elsewhere?
Hubby put a live catcher on a shelf in my laundry room cupboard with bait. Since we were able to determine how the little gnawing darling managed to gain entry through the dryer vent! Hubby then installed that spray insulation, and figured that he/she were either caught in the garage or the laundry room, so traps were put in both.
The little critter was way smarter than you would have thought though since he/she managed to remove the food bait without setting off the traps!
This went on for weeks!
The last thing we wanted to do was to poison it since it could gain entry into our walls and could stink them up pretty fiercely if he/she was to die there, yuck!
We have heard stories of that; people having a disgusting odor emanating from somewhere but never quite being able to quite pinpoint it or having to cut open the wall to get it out when you could!

Our little fellow was brilliant until one day in the wee hours of the morning I heard Casey, the cat running around in our living room. He seemed to be having a heck of a good time!
It was then that I saw what had caught his fancy, our culprit Mister or Ms. Scratching noise maker, dog food eater, non-welcomed guest!
The rat/ mouse, running back and forth behind furniture, and Casey would corner him and just stare, and I screamed! That got Hubby’s attention out of a deep sleep!
He ran in and saw what all the commotion was about and got the broom out of the closet, opened the front door and swept the little interloper out!
He/she did not move for quite some time, and Hubby thought he may have killed it but within several hours it must have been just fine, since it was gone.

And you see that is why we have a bit of experience when it comes to four-legged little rodent type critters. I don’t know about the rest of you but I took to disinfecting any place I thought the little thing had come into contact with, and after all was said and done it was reassuring that he/she had just moved on and that we were not murderers.

On that note I will wish you all a good night and to all count your blessings and we will too!

Good night Mickey or good night Minnie!

The answer to the question is...

What’s the question, you ask?
Why did our electric bill go down when we had our heat on full force at seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit for over two weeks?
The answer came in the mail today.
We are not magically besotted with an ability to cause utility bills or other high use bills to go down by wishing for it… We received, like all the rest of the Floridians on this particular carrier’s electric company’s client list a one time only fuel rebate of $ 92.60 on our bill for this month. Different discounted amounts were given by percentages of kilowatt use or it would have been much, much higher with my worries being realized for real!
Boy, did we all luck out or what?
The coldest weeks in the history in this state, and our power company, Florida Power and Light, AKA FPL, I should mention the nice guys, right decided to give us all a real break on our bills!
Thankfully, as I said last night the weather is now on the upswing and more to us Floridians liking.

I’m going to put my own question out here for all of you to muddle over, OK?
When you have offered something to someone have they right away wanted to know if they could pay you for it or barter with you to exchange something for it?

To me that was a wee bit awkward, when our neighbors did that since this had to do with an overabundance of our lettuce crop. I felt the need to share with our neighbors and family since it would go bad being there, and it is really way too much for just the two of us.
We have always given away our overages in crops; we did with our fruit to the seniors, work and strangers at the cultural center and also to even to one of Hubby’s old chum’s from work that had cattle we gave them our grapefruit when it was overripe.
Our lemons, that are of the Ponderosa variety, used to be a favorite of many family and friends, but still have not come back all the way from Hurricane Charley, but they are producing now, just not as many or as big as they once were, they used to be the size of grapefruit!.
I suppose I feel that the above items are gifts to all the people we offer them to, which means I never once offered them to them with expecting to receive anything in return.
But for some reason everyone was in a haggling mode, and I resisted and explained again that it will all go bad if someone doesn’t eat it.
Although, one persistent neighbor came over with self squeezed orange juice to trade, and so I upped the ante, besides lettuce, radishes I sent her home with also my homemade Minestrone soup and she took it since I insisted I had no room for her generous amount of orange juice container, which is the size of a gallon of milk! It was a done deal, and I believe all involved parties were satisfied with the outcome.

This morning I went for my last check up on my eye surgery and all was perfect! I don’t even have to come back for a year, and so all is well!

On that positive note I will wish you all a very good night and for you all to count your blessings and we will too!

A surprise, and a few informative emails

The last few weeks many may be wondering what the outcome of my concern was over getting a sky high heating bill that hasn’t materialized yet, like most of us with that extreme cold snap that we all went through.

And so a few days ago when I saw the power company coming around reading meters I decided to try to access our online electric company account, and that was yesterday, to plan for that scary possibility, and curtail any unnecessary additional spending.

You can only imagine how brave I was to do this frightening as the prospect was, since we have had some whoppers over the years when we have had extremes in either direction, too hot or too cold, both up north and since living here in the southland.

Knowledge is power (LOL, this is a power driven story, LOL again, I crack myself up!), any-who as we all know, forewarned allows one to accept the inevitable and to prepare accordingly, right?
So I have not ever been a shy shrinking violet in the arena of when it comes to any difficulties. I attack those head on and try to solve or dissolve any problems and nip them in the bud, so to speak that’s just the way I roll, what can I say?

And to say that I was taken aback by what the site that held that information had on it would be an extreme exaggeration to say the least! I know you are all waiting with baited breath with what I found out and I will tell you, but you must not be as shocked as I was, OK?
Because it doesn’t make any sense at all, since our thermostat was nearly all the time on seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit. Are you ready for what I am about to say?

There is no rhyme or reason for why this happened; all I know is now the weather has neutralized and we are now back in a normal, for us, weather pattern mode…

OUR BILL WENT DOWN NEARLY TWENTY-NINE DOLLARS from the previous not too cold month, WOW! That means less, people, I know craaa zeee! I am waiting for the other metaphoric shoe to drop, as if it might be a mistake and the next bill will be twice as much… but that’s just me; sometimes my glass is half empty. Not going to think that way, sorry!

And these last few days have been so pleasant we haven’t needed heat or air-conditioning, with mid-seventies and very low humidity the windows have been open!
Amazing! All that un-necessary worrying for nothing! I wish the same for all of you!
I tell you folks if not, just come on down so you too can have lower utility bills!
And before the chamber tries to thank me again, you are very welcome, just kidding!
They have never ever thanked me for any of my positive spin ads for our sunny warm state.

Upward and onward I also wrote an email to the county extension to try and find a safe way and non-toxic for out rain barrels to not be a breeding ground for mosquitoes with the advent of the lovely change in the weather. Here is what they said that two tablespoons full of vegetable oil will keep the little suckers out; they apparently don’t like the slickness of it! How about that? It was so easy and Hubby already took care of it.

Good night to all, take care and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Well, I tried...

Last night was somewhat of a disappointment. Congratulations to the victor though, Scott Brown, a Republican.

Mr. Brown was interviewed this morning on the Today Show, probably just one of many, but it is the one I saw, and he insists that he believes that all Americans should have health care, and that the bill should be reworked or each state should take up the gauntlet and make their own provisions for insuring its own. When did we become the un-United States of America, was I napping?
He was, as I said before, against the current bill since his state already has 98% of his constituents covered in Massachusetts.

Well, the latest news is the president has decided to go back to the drawing board to rework the bill, what a coincidence, Mr. 41.
For those of you out of the loop of what I am referring to is that he makes the count now forty-one (Republicans) to fifty-nine (Democrats), now allowing for filibustering, the use of extreme dilatory(slowing) tactics in an attempt to delay or prevent action especially in a legislative assembly of the senate.

Interesting observation: Did you know that the 30 million uninsured is the same amount as the 10% of us 300 million Americans that are also unemployed?
Now most don’t make that correlation, and rightfully so, because, some who are not employed may have insurance, and some that are employed may not, got it?

I never took a civics class; at least I don’t remember one, that’s a disclaimer in case I got the above all wrong, sorry! But I am an American with a purpose here to survive, and I am saddened enormously by extremely healthy people or well insured people not getting it; that is all I am going to say about that for now. And I reserve the right to speak on this topic again at a later date, OK?

Today I got some this and that done early, even shampooed and vacuumed the living-room furniture, area rug, and guestroom couch and carpet too! That’s a lot for me.

Hubby worked hard on the seawall and got the framing done on his repair work, and even went to the home store for the cement for the repair, he used our boat trailer.
That thing was responsible for transporting most of our house parts after Hurricane Charley, handy thing, and almost never used for our boat which is up on our lift in the canal alongside our dock. It's hard to believe that they both will be seven years old this July.

Good night to all and to all count your blessings and we will too!

PS An aftershock in Haiti of 6.1 some are now saying only a 5.9, only? Wonder what they would think if their area got a 5.9, only? Sounds to me more like another earthquake, quick we should now consider where to send the people? Donate money, and watch the telethon on Friday night peeps!

Did you know...

In my opinion it is that most people who appose the Healthcare Bill, already have extremely good health care, and have no idea what any help in that arena could mean to the others who are, the have nots? Thirty million Americans are still not insured not to mention the ones who are under insured.
And by far that has always been the case; until a problem hits you personally you, the collective you I am referring to here, cannot understand why others may find the necessity to complain foul play!

I believe that there is an old adage or poem that refers to this:
I wasn’t concerned when they came for the man in the news, because I didn’t know him or what he believed.
I wasn’t interested when they came for the woman down the street since I was not of her religious persuasion.
I didn’t really care about it when they came for my neighbor since his rituals were always so strange to me.
Then they came for me, and that was not fair and I fought and cried! But no one was there for me.

Or some strange thing, I know I got this all mixed up but the finale is the same and means the same.
The point is if we as humans aren’t directly affected many of us are sadly that selfish not to care.
And I had such high hopes for our human race!

Please people don’t allow for the wrong person to be put into the senatorial office in Massachusetts! We need for Ted Kennedy’s legacy to go on! Vote like you are one of the minority who needs you to care! Put yourself in their shoes.
If the republicans win; we underdogs lose.
Is it better to become a burden to the system in other ways, or should we all just die early so we vanish from your view and pretend we never existed?
And mark my words many of the under insured, pre-existing non insurable, or non insured will die.
Americans where is your compassion?
The senators of the Republican Party have great insurance but no hearts.
It amazes me that the apposing party, Democrats, who is also that fortunate to have excellent coverage can also have compassionate hearts, why is this?
Perhaps it is that they have remembered who they are representing, ones who cannot speak for themselves, the down trodden, and the ones who also have the privilege to vote for them or vote them out!

So I plead with you people of Massachusetts, do what you know is right continue to progress not retrogress! Vote another democrat into Teddy’s senatorial position he’s watching and that is what he would have wanted, really!

Good night to all and to all up in MA vote your conscience and compassionate souls, and you won’t be sorry! Count those blessings and we will too!

It does seem that a quieter day always follows a busy or aggravating one...

This morning I realized that we needed to get back to our Beall’s Outlet to return my Hubby’s jeans, his did not fit right, but his were too long, not too small. Most all of his life, and I have known this man since 1967, and his size has been the same in jeans 32X32. Now it wasn’t his tummy that grew like so many of his age, oh no, it was that they were too long; he shrunk like the rest of us older people can do and he now is wearing 32X30, not too bad! Or more than likely it could be a manufacturers sizing difference.
I personally have shrunk three inches, maybe more? So I thought maybe he did too.
No one has been allowed to measure me or weigh me in maybe three years, not knowing is bliss knowing may be painful, and my clothes still fit.

We left the house around eleven thirty A.M. and took care of the return and I also got a nighty, which is a very pretty cotton one in blue and white gingham. Today was the 15% off day, every Monday is, for us, the fifty and over crowd.
I drove my scooter through the parking lot and Hubby took the car to the golden arches on the other end.
He ordered a Big Mac and fries and I ordered two grilled chicken wraps, and we both enjoyed our meals. I know you all are saying, why two Tobi?
Well, I never tried them before and they looked rather small in the picture, and besides they were only $1.49 each and so I thought that was proof that they must be?
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, OK?

The rest of the day transpired with very little fanfare or difficulty, and that was just about all anyone could ask for.

I must admit that about a week or so ago I heard from an old friend that recently moved back here from her home in the mid-west.
She was the one who taught the writer’s workshop I first took way back when, a retired college English professor; do I attract the brainiacs or what?
But she is a doll in every way, not a mean bone in her body and I was thrilled to hear from her, and we will probably be getting together soon, I hope.
Unfortunately, she and I have similar mobility problems, but we will see… where there is a will there is always a way!

On that pleasant note I will wish you all a very good night and to take care, count your blessings and we will too!

Up and down sort of day!

The day started out rather annoying since an old friend of mine from my writing group wrote on my Facebook account, actually probably hers and it was copied to mine, a quote from an author I found to be racist, and on all weekends this one, of Martin Luther King’s birthday!
So I basically tore into her thinking perhaps she wasn’t aware of the author’s horrible use of the ‘N’ word in her writings, which I found extremely offensive, and I am not even an African American, but as a human being on this planet!
It is true that the author was of another generation who wrote back in the 1920’s when people used horrendous terminologies when describing people of all different races.
And no one ever heard of the term politically correct then.
But I did try and read her stories since people had said how wonderful an author she was.
I even ordered her books from our local library, and they had trouble finding some titles that I was told I should read, but all in all after several weeks they had, and I did read some but found my self cringing at the use of such language, and so I returned the books and told them why.
So that’s why I could not believe that someone who was so smart, a previous member of Mensa, would not know that about this author.
But she insisted that the woman author was not a racist and she only found one instance for the ‘N’ word being used, well once is too much in my opinion, right?
Any-who we went back and forth in emails most of the morning and I think by now we are no longer friends, oh well, me and my big mouth and firm convictions!
Who wants to be friends with a person who doesn’t understand what racism is.

The day actually got better after that aggravating morning for we had been invited to our neighbors across the canal for dinner, delicious meal, great company, and we had a marvelous time!
And that is why I am so late writing tonight because we just got home.
So I will be cutting this short because I am blissfully tired.

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!